DETERMINATION OF NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC STEROIDS IN ANIMAL URINE SAMPLES TWO SOLID-PHASE EXTRACTIONS IN ONE METHOD:ROBOTIC SYSTEM SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCES PROCESSING TIME

摘要

The Chemical and Veterinary Investigations Office Muensterland-Emscher-Lippe (CVUA-MEL), a governmental laboratory in Germany, has so far carried out all steps required for sample preparation for the analysis of steroids in animal urine manually. This is a lengthy and very time-consuming activity as two solid phase extractions have to be carried out successively. In order to lighten the workload of the laboratory staff and to be more time-efficient, the CVUA-MEL has recently implemented the LCTech GmbH modular robotic system FREESTYLE for automated sample preparation. In conjunction with the MACHEREY-NAGEL's CHROMABOND SPE columns, good quality and reproducible results are obtained and, moreover, a high sample throughput can be achieved. The system operates under a positive pressure of up to 4 bar, and makes it possible to process samples with different viscosities and reliably excludes cross-contamination.